Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) Major Shareholder George J. Christ Sells 12,760 Shares

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ:ALTR) major shareholder George J. Christ sold 12,760 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.71, for a total transaction of $1,106,419.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 287,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,906,580.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Large shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

George J. Christ also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 23rd, George J. Christ sold 100,000 shares of Altair Engineering stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.32, for a total transaction of $8,732,000.00.

Altair Engineering Price Performance

Shares of ALTR opened at $86.27 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -663.62, a P/E/G ratio of 11.78 and a beta of 1.43. Altair Engineering Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $57.59 and a fifty-two week high of $92.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 2.16 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The business’s 50-day moving average is $85.79 and its 200-day moving average is $75.82.

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The software reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $171.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $172.48 million. Altair Engineering had a positive return on equity of 3.77% and a negative net margin of 1.46%. Equities research analysts expect that Altair Engineering Inc. will post 0.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altair Engineering

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALTR. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 54.5% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,032 shares of the software’s stock valued at $1,548,000 after purchasing an additional 8,474 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Altair Engineering by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 47,705 shares of the software’s stock valued at $3,072,000 after purchasing an additional 704 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Altair Engineering by 7.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,879,144 shares of the software’s stock worth $314,217,000 after buying an additional 339,610 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Altair Engineering by 3.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 353,243 shares of the software’s stock worth $22,750,000 after buying an additional 10,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Altair Engineering by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,645,906 shares of the software’s stock worth $299,196,000 after buying an additional 18,157 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $88.00 price target (up from $74.00) on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Altair Engineering from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Altair Engineering in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Altair Engineering from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Altair Engineering has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.71.

About Altair Engineering

Altair Engineering Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation and design, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Software and Client Engineering Services.